Pop Culture in the 20th Century (Part 2)

[tv star collector]

Hollywood's Golden Age

When I think of the 1930's, I think of all those great movies that came out of
Hollywood: "Dracula" (1931), "Frankenstein" (1931), "King Kong," (1933), etc.
Why, the year 1939 alone gave us three classic films: "Gone with the Wind,"
"Stagecoach" and "The Wizard of Oz."

In 1935, Shirley Temple (then all of seven years old) became the youngest
ever Oscar winner.

In 1937, Walt Disney's masterpiece, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,"
the first feature-length cartoon, was released. The movie was a considerable
gamble for Walt Disney. But, after three years in production at a cost of the
then-unheard-of sum of $1,480,000 (and some two million drawings), it paid
off.

In 1932, Johnny Weissmuller was cast in "Tarzan the Ape Man." He wasn't the
first (Elmo Lincoln, way back in 1918, holds that distinction), but most fans
agree that Weissmuller was "the one and only Tarzan." (They were still
using Weissmuller's yell on the soundtrack of the TV show starring Ron Ely!)
The early MGM Tarzan pictures were "class" films with fine production values
and plenty of action and excitement. (It didn't hurt that Maureen O'Sullivan
was cast as Jane, either.)

Movie serials became very popular during this period. Many (well, most) were
based on famous comic strips, including "Dick Tracy," "Buck Rogers," "Flash
Gordon," "Superman," "Batman," "Captain Marvel," etc.

In 1938, a domestic comic strip (that, incredibly, is still going strong today,
more than 75 years after it was first published) came to the silver screen:
Chic Young's "Blondie." Arthur Lake was ideally cast as Dagwood Bumstead.
Penny Singleton (later the voice of Jane Jetson on TV) was also perfectly
cast in the role of Blondie. Twenty-eight episodes were made over a span of
13 years. The comedies still hold up well today.

In 1930, Max Fleischer and artist Grim Natwick created the first significant
female cartoon character, Betty Boop. Said to have been inspired by actress
Helen Kane (the "Boop-Boop-a-Doop" girl), she actually began as a hybrid of
a dog and a sexy girl with a voluptuous feminine body but dog ears and a
canine nose (because her co-star, Bimbo, was himself a humanized dog).
But it wasn't long before she evolved into the saucy character we know today, whose traits and mannerisms were similar to those of sex siren Mae
West. Actress Mae Questel (the voice of Olive Oyl) supplied Betty's voice.
(In fact, Popeye made his screen debut in a Betty Boop cartoon (1933).)

In 1934, Donald Duck debuted in "The Wise Little Hen." Walt Disney had
heard milkman Clarence Nash doing animal imitations on a radio program and
when he heard him reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb" in a duck voice, Walt
knew he had found the man to supply Donald's voice. The rest is history.

In 1937, Ralph Byrd portrayed Chester Gould's famous detective, Dick Tracy,
in the first of four Republic serials (and two feature films). (Byrd was so good
in the role, that he later starred in a cheaply made ABC-TV series, in the
fifties, which only ran for one season. His death at 43, of a heart attack,
ended plans for a second season.)

The first big Warner Bros. cartoon star was Porky Pig, who debuted in the
1935 cartoon "I Haven't Got a Hat," directed by Friz Freleng. Originally, the
studio booked Joe Dougherty, an actor with a genuine stutter, to supply
Porky's voice. Unfortunately, he was unable to control it and used up yards
of soundtrack before hitting the target. Then they found Mel Blanc (already
an established performer on Jack Benny's radio program). Blanc supplied
Porky's voice, along with all the rest of the Looney Tunes menagerie that
followed. Blanc was the first actor to receive onscreen credit. It was in his
contract. As a result, although other actors (including Bea Benadaret, June
Foray, Arthur Q. Bryan and Jim Backus) supplied voices for minor characters,
Blanc's voice was the one credited.) In 1937, "Porky's Duck Hunt" gave birth
to another Looney Tunes star: Daffy Duck.

They Went Thataway: The First Western Stars

The Lone Ranger started his career on radio, in 1933. Created by Fran Striker,
the masked man and his faithful Indian companion, Tonto, galloped away each
week to right another wrong. (Would you believe that noble steed Silver was
once just a pair of cocoanut shells going kloppity-klop on a board to simulate
hoofbeats?)

Nearly all professional horsemen agree that the greatest rider on the big screen was Tom Mix. He was practically raised on a horse and rode professionally in rodeos long before he was signed up for the movies. He also
had his own radio program.

But among Western stars, one name stands above all the rest. Born Marion
Michael Morrison, John Wayne's first Hollywood job was herding geese on the
set of a John Ford Western. He was 22 years old when he starred in "The Big
Trail." After making scores of two-reelers for small studios like Republic, Wayne was picked by Ford to star in "Stagecoach" (1939), and a movie
career that would last over four decades had begun.

The Golden Age of Radio

The golden age of radio gave us many, many great stars and shows. The
variety of radio shows would surprise modern radio listeners: comedy, variety
shows, westerns, mysteries, dramas, horror, science-fiction, children's shows,
quiz shows, soap operas, newscasts ... you name it. This was the era before
television. The radio listener was challenged to use his/her imagination. No
scenic or costume or prop designer can rival the theatre of the mind. Now I
can just visualize some 22nd Century archaeologist who might stumble upon a
buried time capsule containing some of these recordings and exclaiming: "Sound with no pictures -- Wow! What a concept!"

The Roots of Country Music

One radio program has to be singled out because it introduced the masses to
a whole genre of music and launched the careers of many popular singers.
WSM's Grand Ole Opry was actually first broadcast on Dec. 8, 1928,
and it marked the beginning of the popularity of country music (some would
say the only truly American music). Soon the airwaves were filled with the
sounds of the Carter Family, Roy Acuff, Jimmie Rodgers, Patsy Montana, and
Hank Williams (to name only a few).

They Made Us Laugh

Most of the early comedians--on radio, movies and (later) television--began
their careers on the vaudeville stage. One of the longest running acts in show
business was formed in 1925. Originally billed as Ted Healy and His Racketeers
(and later Ted Healy and His Stooges), the team and Healy soon parted ways.
The boys (Moe Howard, Larry Fine and Curly Howard) signed a contract with
Columbia that would run an incredible thirty-one years. Curly was really a comic genius who came up with many memorable sounds and funny routines.
There were actually six Stooges. After Curly's death, at 48, of a stroke, he was replaced by his older brother Shemp Howard (who had been the original third Stooge on vaudeville). When Shemp died of a heart attack, he in turn was replaced by comic Joe Besser. Besser left the act after only a year to tend to his ailing wife, and Joe DeRita--nicknamed "Curly-Joe" due to his resemblance to Curly Howard--became the last Stooge.

On the Horizon ....

In 1939, the first television sets went on the market, and the opening of the
New York World's Fair was televised. (Early pioneers had experimented with
this new gadget as early as 1925. Philo Farnsworth is generally credited with
the invention.) Radio stations and movie studios weren't worried, though.
People scoffed at the new medium and said that it would never last; it was
just a passing fad. That's all. Little did they know.